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by Katie Dazuru
Summary: "Lan's hands are fidgeting, having been in and out of his pockets multiple times in the last few minutes. He's not nervous - quite the opposite, really - but he just can't seem to keep still." Lan/Chaud, MegaMan.EXE/ProtoMan.EXE.


**I'm Battle Network trash. Help . H eLp**

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The airport is bustling around them, but Lan doesn't focus on the people walking by. He's too busy shuffling and shifting his weight from foot to foot, and he hears Maylu giggle quietly behind him. Lan's hands are fidgeting, having been in and out of his pockets multiple times in the last few minutes. He's not nervous – quite the opposite, really – but he just can't seem to keep still. Maylu's only here because her parents are returning from holiday in Ameroupe, gone for about two weeks, and decided to hang around with him since they're both waiting.

MegaMan's excited too, he's confident of that. His navi hasn't stopped babbling on about ProtoMan for the past three days, and he wonders if maybe MegaMan is more excited than he is. Strangely enough, the blue navi is oddly silent in his PET, but Lan just chalks that up to anticipation. He'd been exactly the same the past few days, not even shutting up when working (leading to more than a few odd looks or exasperated but amused eye rolls from his colleagues), but how can they blame him? It's been two and a half weeks – almost _three_ – since he's seen him, so excuse him for being a little more than enthusiastic.

His mind strays to his work, remembering his stressful nights with no one there to comfort him; how he'd fall asleep at four in the morning at his desk, still fully dressed in his clothes and lab coat, despite MegaMan's multiple orders for him to go to bed and get some decent sleep ("Not yet, MegaMan, I just need to finish this!") and waking up with paper sticking to the side of his face. It's weird to think how back when he'd been younger he'd never thought he'd follow in his father's and grandfather's footsteps to become a scientist, but now whenever he walks into Sci-Labs it feels strangely like a second home.

Some impatient woman shoves her way past Lan, suitcase rumbling behind her, effectively shaking him from his reverie, and his focus returns to the crowd of people in front of him, rushing around, either with their phones glued to their ears, or maybe calling out for someone and waving animatedly. His fidgeting, having stopped as he spaced out, resumes at full force, and he feels Maylu put a hand on his shoulder. He turns his head to smile at her, and he sees the amusement and understanding in her eyes as she smiles back. She knows just how excited he is.

Lan's eyes stray up to the _Arrivals_ board, scanning the different flights to find the one he's waiting for. It's near the bottom of the screen where he catches the name _Sharo_ and sees the words "arrived fifteen minutes ago" and he's grinning all over again, shuffling back and forth on his feet instead. A call of Maylu's name only slightly weakens his focus, and he absentmindedly notices Maylu rushing past him to greet her parents with a huge smile and an even bigger hug before his gaze flickers back to in front of him, where the dwindling crowd is starting to grow busier again as more people pile out.

It's quiet enough, though, that he hears MegaMan made a strained, happy noise, and he only just manages to see the bright, excited grin on his face before the blue navi disappears in a flurry of pixels. He stares, blinking stupidly, before looking back up again at the crowd. He scans it, eyes straining, for any sign of _anything_ -

"Lan!"

The familiar voice comes out of seemingly nowhere, but when Lan turns to his left he's met with bright blue eyes. Chaud's hair is somewhat of a mess and he's got a faint, pink mark on the side of his face from where he evidently fell asleep on the plane, but he's smiling, waving at him. Lan barely manages to swallow his joyous yell before all but sprinting at him, and Chaud comes to a stop, setting his suitcase upright, mere seconds before Lan collides with him. The firm contact is a breath of fresh air, and Lan wastes no time in enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug. All the emails and video calls are _nothing_ compared to having Chaud actually there with him, and Lan buries his face in Chaud's shoulder, smothering his stupidly bright grin in the soft fabric of the other's shirt.

"Hey." Chaud's the first one to speak, and Lan can clearly hear the amusement in his tone.

"Hey," he parrots, though it's muffled, and he feels one arm wrap securely around his waist as a hand buries itself in his hair. Lan laughs, but doesn't move, way too excited and happy, with the mantra of _Chaud's back_ echoing in his head, and he remembers just how much he missed him. From Chaud's hip, he hears the sound of delighted laughter, and he doesn't even have to ask or look to know that the owner is MegaMan. It's followed by soft murmuring, and then more laughter, and Lan notes that he's going to ask MegaMan for possible details later (it's not that he's curious, it's just that it's hilarious watching his navi turn as red as his icon and hear him stumble over his words and fidget, because honestly MegaMan has it so bad for ProtoMan it's ridiculous).

Shifting slightly, Lan does eventually move back – though not enough to escape the hug, of course, but enough that he can at least see Chaud's face – and looks up. He's still shorter than Chaud (a fact which amuses the other to no end, Lan knows that all too well), but it's only slightly. Chaud smiles at him with the brightest, sweetest smile he's ever seen, and in that moment all he wants to do is kiss him.

And then he realises: he can. There's absolutely nothing in the world stopping him.

So that's exactly what he does; Lan tugs his boyfriend down and kisses him, right there, in the middle of the busy crowd with people hurrying around them, his hands firmly gripping the front of Chaud's red vest. Chaud laughs against his mouth, the sound low and almost silent compared to the near-deafening chattering happening around them, but the arm around Lan's back tightens almost possessively. It ends far too quickly, in Lan's opinion, when they do separate, and Chaud seems to have a similar mindset because not even two seconds later he finds a hand moving to caress his cheek. When Chaud smiles, like: really, _really_ smiles, it seems to have a damn near magical effect on his eyes, and as Lan looks into deep, deep blue, it almost feels like he's falling in love all over again.

He huffs out a laugh (it's more of a soft snort, really) as he raises his own hand to cover Chaud's own, his brown eyes crinkling at the corners as he grins, and brushes over it tenderly. Anyone looking at them would easily be able to tell how pathetically in love with each other they are (Lan knows that, because MegaMan – the hypocrite – makes it his mission to comment on it at least once a week), and as Chaud moves to press a feather-light kiss to his nose, Lan decides that maybe there's nothing wrong with that at all.

"Welcome home," he says, and the unspoken "I love you" is extremely clear. There's a beat, before Lan finds himself being swept up into another firm embrace. And he does not giggle, no siree, when Chaud buries his face into his neck – he _laughs_ because it _tickles_ , and it's definitely not some kind of lovesick _giggle_ because he's pathetically in love with the guy known as Chaud Blaze.

Lan knows that eventually they'll have to let go. They'll spend god knows how long exchanging kisses and warm hugs in the comfort of their own home, and hold hands or rest their heads on each other in public, and fall asleep next to each other, their legs tangled together under the duvet. And then eventually Chaud will have to go on another business trip to another country, for who knows how long, and Lan will go through the same cycle by himself, but he'll manage, because they've gone through much worse together, and it'll take a hell of a lot more than _distance_ to stop them.

But for now? For now, he's going to stand there and hold onto his boyfriend for dear life because right now, in this moment, everything is absolutely perfect.


End file.
